A Multilevel Analysis of Asian Immigrant Children's Reading Achievement in the Early Years: Evidence from the ECLS-K Data

Li, Guofang; Yang, Lihong

Frontiers of Education in China, v10 n1 p110-131 2015

This study investigates 1.5 generation Asian immigrant children's (n = 264) early literacy achievement patterns, treating them as a heterogeneous group. Specifically, the within-group variances in reading achievement from kindergarten to third grade are examined, drawing on four waves of data from the ECLS-K class of 1998-1999. Our analysis shows that ethnicity plays a role in shaping the children's initial reading readiness and later growth, but the effects of languages spoken at home are not significant. Our analysis also demonstrates a persistent achievement gap between low-and high-socioeconomic status (SES) Asian groups. However, gender difference in terms of children's reading development is not found to be significant. There is also no interaction between SES and the other factors such as gender, ethnicity and language backgrounds.